300 East
French Onion Soup at 300 East
Where oh where to begin with 300 East? I guess from the beginning.
When I first moved to Charlotte, the first restaurant everyone recommended I try was 300 East. It’s a bit of an institution. It’s been around since 1986, and from my understanding, it has paved the way for the food scene here. It’s consistently voted one of the best restaurants in Charlotte, even in recent years.
An early birthday dinner for me!
Well, despite the pandemic, I finally made it to 300 East for an early birthday dinner. In typical fashion, we ordered a solid amount of food:
French Onion Soup: Served with “Provolone and Croutons.” This was the best thing we ate. The broth had excellent flavor. It was rich and savory and not overly oily or salty. Unfortunately, they cut the bread WAY too thick. We needed to use a knife to cut it. And… you shouldn’t need a knife to eat soup.
Housemade Pimento Cheese: Served with veggies and saltines. I’d say this was decent pimento cheese. It was creamy yet firm and flavorful but not spicy.
Chesapeake Style Lump Crab Cake: The crab cake was average. The restaurant used lump crab — and plenty of it. I’m a fan when there’s not much filler. However, the crab tasted oily — and like the oil was old. They served it with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. The mashed potatoes were fresh-made with a cheesy flavor to them, and they were decent. The brussels sprouts had good flavor but were overcooked.
Grilled Hanger Steak: The steak was decent. It was highly marinaded, but the flavor was good, and it was cooked to a nice medium-rare. It represented a good value at $22.50.
Sweet Potato Ravioli: Served with gorgonzola cream and toasted walnuts. Again, these were decent. They were very heavy on the blue cheese, so if this is your jam, you’ll enjoy them.
Our great mistake: skipping dessert
I was full, so I didn’t order dessert. Unfortunately, after we left, we found out that dessert is the specialty at 300 East. So surprising! Our server never even mentioned dessert. There was no attempt to upsell it when we said we were full, nor was it mentioned early on. I’d think if dessert were the specialty, the restaurant would want to promote it from the start of the meal.
Overrated
I found 300 East to be overrated and not quite deserving of the hype. Nothing was bad, but nothing made me say “wow,” either. It all tasted very homecooked and just OK. I gave them a 6/10.
So… this is where it gets interesting. After I posted this to Instagram, the restaurant owners (Ashley Boyd and Cathy Coulter) tried to shame me. Instead of leaving it with one comment, they continued to try and gang up on me due to my review. I’m not sure what their goal was with that, as it simply made my followers further support me and gave the post more traction.
When I stood firm in my opinion, the owners then tried to point the finger at the pandemic for the experience I had by saying they dedicate “50% of [their] time and labor on complying with regulations.” All restaurants have to comply with the same regulations — both newly opened restaurants and historic institutions. While some are struggling to adapt to this new normal, many others have not only adapted but are thriving.
All in all, while I found the food to be average, I would have still recommended giving 300 East a visit. Everyone has different tastes, so what is a 6/10 for me may be an 8/10 for someone else. Based upon my interaction with the owners of 300 East, though, now I wouldn’t even recommend trying it.
